"I am leaving you," the note said. "God bless you. This country and this world are not for me. I am going to be happy now. Tell my mother I loved her very much. I blame you all for my death. This world is not colorful enough for my colors. Farewell."

Society in Azerbaijan, as in many other former Soviet republics where same-sex relations were decriminalized in the 1990s, remains generally hostile toward homosexuality.